Sweden’s Henrik Stenson successfully defended a title for the first time in his career after a thrilling finish to the DP World Tour Championship on Sunday.

Stenson carded a closing 70 at Jumeirah Golf Estates to finish 16 under par, two shots ahead of the world No1, Rory McIlroy, and his Ryder Cup team-mates Justin Rose and Victor Dubuisson. Ireland’s Shane Lowry finished a shot further back in fifth to move into the top 50 in the world and take a massive step towards securing a Masters debut next April.

Spain’s Rafael Cabrera-Bello held a two-shot lead with seven holes to play only to bogey the 12th and run up double bogeys on the 16th and 17th after finding water on both occasions.

Stenson had also found trouble on a rollercoaster back nine, hitting his tee shot out of bounds on the 11th to gift playing partner Cabrera-Bello that two-shot advantage, but a brilliant tee shot on the par-three 17th produced a tap-in birdie to reclaim the lead.

McIlroy and Rose had missed birdie putts on the 18th from near-identical positions, while Dubuisson had to settle for a birdie after almost holing out from a greenside bunker.

The victory was worth more than £1.3m to Stenson thanks to the first prize of £830,000 and a bonus of £510,000 for maintaining second place in the Race to Dubai behind McIlroy.

• Swedish player defends his title in Dubai
• McIlroy finishes two shots behind